ROME, (Islamweb & Agencies) -Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight world powers enter a second day of talks Thursday in a bid to overcome their differences on international crises ahead of the Genoa summit. (Read photo caption below).
Ministers from the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Britain, Italy and Russia were to meet for the second day running in a villa on the outskirts of Rome for discussions dominated by the Middle East, diplomats said.
In addition to pursuing their discussions, the ministers are expected to release a statement on the common ground between them on some issues, such as their support for the Mitchell report on the Middle East crisis.
After Wednesday's meeting, the ministers said time was running out and the international community's patience wearing thin as efforts to ressurrect the Middle East peace process and mediate a ceasefire hit the buffers.
France's Hubert Vedrine said: "International impatience has mounted since the beginning of the Mitchell process."
The Mitchell plan urges a complete ceasefire in the fighting between Israeli and Palestinian forces and the putting in place of confidence-building measures ahead of a resumption of peace talks.
But fighting has continued despite a US-brokered ceasefire theoretically coming into effect on June 13.
Israel sent extra tanks and troops into the West Bank on Wednesday in what it called a warning to the Palestinians to stop almost 10 months of bloodshed, but insisted it had no plans to invade their territory.
Despite Foreign Minister Shimon Peres saying Israel had no plan to attack the Palestinians, the Israeli army further beefed up its forces around Bethlehem and Beit Jala to protect the nearby Jewish settlement of Gilo in Jerusalem, which came under fire again Wednesday night.
European diplomats here said the the Middle East would once more be the main topic of discussion on Friday and that the weekend summit would be an opportunity to send a "strong signal" to Israel and the Palestinians.
The ministers were unable to reach a joint position on the crisis in Macedonia, however, and an attempt to assemble the members of the six-nation Contact Group on the former Yugoslavia collapsed without agreement.
The fragile ceasefire in Macedonia was under threat Thursday as the government warned that ethnic Albanian leaders had demanded too many concessions in peace talks and attacked the negotiations' EU and US sponsors.
The Balkan republic's hawkish Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski accused Europe and the United States of supporting ethnic Albanian fighters, a charge Washington immediately denied.
In Rome, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov stopped short of accusing its G8 partners of collusion with the Albanians, whose five-month-old uprising has pushed the country to the brink of civil war.
But he too laid the blame for the conflict squarely at the door of the West, accusing NATO peacekeepers of allowing violence to spread from the breakaway southern Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
Thursday's meeting will also address other issues of global concern before concluding around mid-day (1000 GMT).
Following the meeting in Rome, the leaders of the G8 countries will meet in Genoa from Friday until Sunday.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A view of Genoa, Italy, showing an almost deserted elevated main ring, Wednesday, July 18, 2001. The port city of Genoa, host of the July 20-22 G8 summit, was partially sealed off in anticipation of the anti-globalization demonstrations expected in the next days. Building in foreground is St. George palace. The building represents an union of two architectural complexes, one medieval and the other of the 16th century. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)